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An Israeli official says Israel will now relate with same force to attacks from Gaza as it would from any other neighboring Arab state which provoked Israel. This implies that Israel will use all military force necessary to defend its civilians, without making any distinction between political and military wings and various terror groups. The IsraCast assessment is that Israel will attempt to break the Hamas motivation to rocket Israel and the terrorists' belief that violence and not negotiation will further its goals.

Appeals by Israeli leaders, from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and even Egypt have apparently gone unheeded by the Hamas leadership of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian terrorists who govern Gaza have continued to fire scores of Qassam rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians in the towns and villages just over the border. It has been a time of terrorizing the Israeli children, women, and men who live in the area, many of whom have fled their homes. Unless there is some dramatic halt to the terrorism by Hamas it will only be a matter of time and the weather, before Israel finally launches a counter-terror operation to suppress the attacks.

Hamas has announced that its 'tahadiya' truce with Israel ended officially on Friday morning, six months after it began. A short time after the deadline, Palestinian terrorists launched fresh attacks on Israeli civilians just over the border. Israel and the Palestinians have entered a new juncture with both sides having to decide what happens now. IsraCast examines several possibilities that could lead either to an extended lull or a dangerous escalation.

The former Finnish president, 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to focus in the first year of his presidency on solving the Middle East conflict. Ahtisaari spoke Wednesday in Oslo, Norway as he received the 2008 prize for decades of global peace-making efforts.

The selection of a new Likud Knesset list has aroused speculation in Israel about its impact on the upcoming February 10th election. IsraCast assesses the current situation quoting Netanyahu sources who believe that security will drive this election campaign.

The Israeli election primaries moved into high gear amid escalating settler violence in Hebron and Palestinian rocketing from Gaza. This sudden shift, above and beyond its security implications, may provide Labor party leader Ehud Barak with a 'make or break' opportunity in his role as defense minister. IsraCast assesses the evolving situation against the backdrop of Hebron and Gaza - further reports will also analyze the Likud and Kadima strategies for the February 10th election.

How will President-elect Barack Obama deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other Middle-East issues after he enters the White House on January 20th? Israeli officials and observers are considering the change of guard not only in Washington but also in Jerusalem, where latest polls indicate that the Likud's Bibi Netanyahu is gradually increasing his lead over Kadima's Tzipi Livni.

Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu, who is leading the polls for the February 10th election, has received the active support of Dan Meridor who clashed bitterly with Netanyahu in a former government. At a news conference, Meridor declared that despite their past differences Netanyahu was the best candidate to become Israel's next prime minister. In another surprise move, Yuval Rabin the son of the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin of Labor, has said that he did not rule out voting for Netanyahu.

During the American presidential campaign, Israeli political figures were careful not to make any comment that might be seen as favoring either Barack Obama or John McCain. But now, Israeli officials are again voicing their positions on Middle East issues. This trend will likely continue as Israel's own election campaign gets under way.

This weekend, the U.S presidential election campaign draws to a close while Israel's gets on their way. In both campaigns, Israel's future will be intertwined in more ways than one. IsraCast looks at the American ballot on November 4th and Israel's poll is now set for February 10th.

The American commando raid against the Al-Qaeda operation inside Syria is apparently a clear signal that the Bush administration is fed-up with Syria's collusion in infiltrating terrorists into Iraq where they have been killing and wounding U.S and Iraqi soldiers. But Iraq is only of several fronts on which Syrian President Bashar Assad has been playing a double game. IsraCast also raises the question if the U.S. operation is a stern warning to Iran.

In what might be one of his last briefings to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense committee - outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert summed-up Israel's strategic situation. His briefing came against the background of his Kadima party's leadership primaries on September 17th, to select a new party leader. IsraCast reports that at the closed door briefing, a senior IDF intelligence officer warned that if all goes well for Iran, it could acquire nuclear weapons by early 2010.

It's now official - the new Lebanese government has officially sanctioned any new Hezbollah aggression against Israel. What are the implications for the Beirut government that has always tried to dodge responsibility for the attacks by Hezbollah, the radical Islamist movement sponsored by Iran? In an interview with IsraCast, Dr. Dan Schueftan, an Israeli Middle East expert, assesses this new Lebanese situation as well as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement that the U.S. would not veto an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear installations.

Although he is being investigated for political and financial corruption, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is not letting that interfere with his current contacts with both the Palestinians and Syrians. He has just briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee on where things stand. However, most of the MKs told IsraCast that Olmert had no business conducting negotiations under the present circumstances and making concessions on his way out of office.

'Hamas has no intention of ever compromising with Israel' - that's the assessment of Shabak security chief Yuval Diskin. In his view, Hamas sees it as 'either them or us!' and there was no place for the Jews in what was the sanctified Muslim land of all Palestine. (Hamas, like its Iranian ally, also calls for Israel's annihilation.) Diskin, who had recommended against the current cease-fire, contended that Israel had thrown Hamas a life-line after Israeli counter-strikes had severely damaged the fundamentalist regime in the Gaza Strip.

The second Palestinian tractor attack in Jerusalem within three weeks has sounded alarm bells in Israel's capital city. Shortly before the latest assault, Shabak security chief Yuval Diskin actually predicted more acts of terrorism for Israel's capital. He warned it was 'very important' to start reimposing the sealing-up or demolition of terrorists family homes, otherwise Israel had no means of deterring would-be terrorists who lived inside Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Hamas has co-opted what appeared to be the individual attack by declaring a 'Jerusalem intifada'. Isracast assesses the problem of coping with Jerusalem's enemies within.

For the second time in a month, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem has carried out a terrorist attack using a speeding bulldozer - the terrorist deliberately plowed into five vehicles and narrowly missed a crowded bus. A number of Israeli civilians were injured before a nearby civilian and a policeman opened fire and shot dead the terrorist.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has reacted sternly to Iran's rejection of the latest international offer to halt the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The British leader was speaking in Israel's parliament the Knesset where he also called on the Jewish state to seize the opportunity to make a peace with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. IsraCast reports that Brown made clear that the international community is about to intensify its campaign to isolate Tehran, if it does start negotiating in good faith.

Israel has gone through two of its most difficult days in recent times. The return of two IDF soldiers in coffins one day and their burial the next , was a time of personal mourning for most Israelis. After Sergeants Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were laid to rest, the full focus of attention turns to Corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted in a another cross border raid over two years ago and apparently held captive in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. IsraCast reports that the debate over releasing living terrorists for dead IDF soldiers will continue, yet Israel's willingness 'to pay the price' is felt by many Israelis as a source of national strength and unity.